Why Instagram Pods Suck

December 11, 2017

Why Instagram Pods Suck I simply HAD to make a video on this. Over the last 6 months I have seen many high profile Social Media influencers encourage others to jump on this bandwagon and frankly it’s just terrible advice.

In this video I give 6 reasons why Instagram Pods suck (because they really do). Here they are in order of how they appear:

1. The Algorithm – I am not 100% sure how 10-15 people all engaging on the one image is meant to drive a difference in the algorithm in a helpful way. All it will do is ensure those specific 10-15 people see your posts each time… it won’t necessarily push it out or rank you higher in other people’s feeds because Insta doesn’t work that way.

2. Hashtags – In short, you need a killer hashtag strategy because hashtags are the way people search on Instagram. That being said, I believe part of the philosophy behind pods is that they push your post to the ‘popular’ post page BUT if you don’t already have a great hashtag strategy, this is meaningless. Why? Because if you get pushed to the popular page for a big hashtag or a hashtag that is broad or not as relevant to you as it should be, the followers you gain from this won’t be qualified and likely won’t continue to engage with further posts.

3. Gamifying The System – No good ever comes from gamifying whether it be unqualified followers or a spike in engagement followed by a lull, you just can’t gamify GOOD QUALITY social media. Do it right, not fast or the cheats way.

4. Reliability – Instagram pods requires people to be reliable and when people aren’t being paid to do something, I can guarantee you that they won’t be reliable for long.

5. Consistency – Much like reliability, the human condition is such that the majority of people struggle with consistency. Don’t be surprised if after a day when the excitement of your pod has worn off, that engagement begins to drop because people simply aren’t good with being consistent. Chances are that people who ARE good at being consistent aren’t busying themselves with Instagram pods but rather are spending their time making a content plan, creating content and engaging with their community.

6. Quality – My argument for this is similar to the one above. Quality is such an important part of growth and good Instagram feeds and I would argue that people that understand this are spending their time making high quality content for the platform NOT engaging in Instagram pods. Quality content can stand alone and still be great, it doesn’t need others helping it gamify its way to the top.

I hope if you are considering joining a pod that you consider the amount of time you need to invest. With 10-15 people (and sometimes more) in any given pod, that’s a lot of time required from you that you could be using to stay focused on your own work.

If you’ve ever been part of a pod I’d love to hear your experiences below. Was it good? Did it work? Did it take long before it died off?